To VC or not VC...

He grew up on the family stories of his heroism, and his own father, a primary school teacher, made sure local kids were also taught about his bravery.

But the life-sacrificing actions of Australian Naval Commander Robert William Rankin have never been recognised with a medal.

In fact, none of Australia's Navy personnel have ever received the nation's highest military honour, the Victoria Cross.

It's been almost 70 years to the day since Lieutenant Commander Rankin steered his 81-metre lightly-armed sloop, the HMAS Yarra, towards a far superior Japanese force of three cruisers and two destroyers in the vast waters south of Indonesia.

He did it to protect a small convoy of ships he had been escorting to Western Australia.

"It's a real David and Goliath fight," says Dr Peter Stanley, of the National Museum of Australia.

"It's both a terrible tragedy because of the losses and also one of those heroic episodes because of the officer's self-sacrificing decision.

"The Yarra's crew...it did go back and attempt to sacrifice it in order to help the convoy get away."

It was just after dawn on March 4, 1942 and the Yarra was "outgunned and out-ranged, and the enemy ships were faster", according to the Australian War Memorial.

But despite her hopeless task, the Yarra - led by Lieutenant Commander Rankin - kept fighting, even as the convoy was overwhelmed and sunk one-by-one.

"He gave the order of abandon ship and everybody did what he told them to, except him and another person remained there," says his nephew Clement Rankin, now 73.

"To me...they committed suicide."

Now three Navy men who died aboard the Yarra are being considered for the nation's highest military decoration for valour.

Lieutenant Commander Robert Rankin, Lieutenant Commander Francis Edward Smith and Leading Seaman Ronald Taylor - who continued to fire as the ship went down - are among 13 late soldiers being considered for the Victoria Cross.

An independent tribunal is currently touring Australia holding public hearings to determine whether any of the 13 should be awarded the honour, or if anyone else should be considered.

But the task - carefully piecing together war histories and evidence from heroic acts - some carried out 100 years ago - is proving problematic, and divisive.

Just a handful of Victoria Cross medals have ever been handed out.

Take World War Two for example - of the 691,400 men who served in the Australian Army, just 17 were handed out.

In the Royal Australian Air Force, just two of the almost 190,000 who served received one.

And no member of the Australian Navy has ever received a Victoria Cross.

"It's an extraordinarily rare award," says Air Commodore Mark Lax, a former senior Air Force officer and one of five panellists presiding over the current inquiry.

The Returned Services League (RSL) believes that without new evidence, the matter should remain in the past.

"If there's new evidence provided that hasn't been used before then we would support it (a medal)," RSL Australia's deputy national president Don Rowe told the inquiry in Sydney.

"If there's no further evidence, we don't believe history should be rewritten."

"It's very hard to go back 90 years.

"There are no witnesses. How can we recognise these people without new evidence and without them being able to give evidence?"

Military historian Dr Peter Stanley, the head of the National Museum of Australia's Centre for Historical Research, also has concerns about belated recognition.

"The idea of retrospective awards is not practical and it will create as many anomalies and injustices as it seek to resolve," Dr Stanley explains.

"It fundamentally will acknowledge people who are already famous, and it won't do much for people who may have been equally brave but who aren't famous."

The unfortunate thing about medals is they depend on paperwork, he says.

"Sometimes for example people do brave things and nobody bothers to write it down," he says.

"That's the thing, recognising bravery - it's paradoxical because on the one hand it's an impulsively brave act and on the other hand getting recognised depends essentially on paperwork.

"You can do the brave act but if nobody does the paperwork you don't get the medal.

"It goes through a bureaucratic process and this bureaucratic process can break down at any stage."

Tribunal chair Alan Rose AO said the case of the Yarra was one of the more difficult for the panel to investigate, as many of the primary documents had gone missing.

But one of the few remaining men alive who survived the Yarra incident, Bernard Higgins, of the Royal Navy, believes recognition would be long overdue.

Now 88, Mr Higgins was on a ship in the convoy being escorted by the Yarra. He watched the Yarra head towards the Japanese attack and create a smokescreen, allowing 57 survivors to flee in life boats.

"The Yarra only had a top speed of 18 knots, it had no chance," he says.

"They deserve something."

Lieutenant Commander Rankin's nephew Clement testified at the inquiry this week Sydney, along with his son Peter, 46.

In 2001 a Collins class submarine was named in Rankin's honour and given the motto "Defend the Weak".

"It was certainly a heroic trip and the odds against them were tremendous," he says.

"(The Victoria Cross) would be a tremendous achievement for us, not that we did anything, but we did try hard for him to get it, and we just hope that he will be recognised for his bravery and valour."

The hearings continue in Sydney this week, before travelling to Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane in February and March.